Paperboard cartons are used to package and transport a wide variety of products such as individual beverage containers, food items or other commodities such as detergents or cat litter. Carrying handles are helpful on such packages which can be both bulky and relatively heavy and, as a result, are not typically packaged into a bag for transport by a customer, but are rather carried separately.
Packages have been developed which include integral handles. Such packages, however, suffer from a number of disadvantages. One disadvantage is the requirement of a double thickness of material for the handle. This requires the use of more packaging material and can provide cartons with end panels of varying thickness which may be unstable when stacked for storage, shipment and display.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,868,433 (Anderson, Jr.) discloses a receptacle with an integral handle formed of two layers of paperboard to carry the receptacle and its contents. In addition to the disadvantages noted above for cartons employing double thickness handles, the Anderson, Jr. receptacle suggests that users may insert their fingers under the doubled portion of the flap, but provides no structure to facilitate the insertion of a user's fingers or hand for carrying the carton.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,094,268 (Swanson et al.) and 2,955,739 (Collura) also disclose cartons with carrying handles. These patents do provide a means for insertion of a user's fingers or hand under the handle, but in doing so they caused an additional disadvantage in that both cartons have openings into their interiors and, therefore, are not suitable for containing materials including powdered commodities such as soap, or granular materials such as rice, coffee, dog food or cat litter which could leak out of the openings in the cartons.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,986,324 to Anderson, Jr., discloses a carton having a single thickness strap formed in an overlapping end portion which is formed to overlap the entire end of a carton formed from the blank. This end portion includes a pair of cutouts to facilitate grasping the handle as well as score lines formed along its entire length to allow the handle to separate from the remainder of the panel 31. As a result, a reinforcing strap 60 is required to be placed over the handle 57 and to extend along the sides of the carton to provide attachment after score lines 51 and 52 have separated from the remainder of panel 31.
A disadvantage of this design is the need for additional material in providing handle 31 whose primary-function is to provide the paperboard portion 57 of the handle. A further disadvantage of this design is the absolute requirement for a reinforcing strap to run along the handle 50.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,378,905 to Roccaforte discloses a carton including a double thickness handle. Roccaforte discusses that openings 74 and 76 as depicted in FIG. 5 are optional, but it discourages such a design because of the additional creases that would tend to form in the package which would serve as a focal point for tearing. Such tearing could result in leakage of the carton's contents and, in some instances, failure of the handle formed as part of the carton.